Months of hard work by CFA activists and students is paying off again this week as the Senate and the Assembly agreed to increase CSU funding and reopen the doors to thousands of Californians who were eligible but denied access to the People’s University.

Two public hearings last week by State Assembly committees took up issues affecting the CSU. One hearing looked at diversity among instructional faculty, and another examined the future of the state’s Master Plan for Higher Education.

TRANSCENDENCE @ CSU STANISLAUS: The CFA Stanislaus chapter is co-sponsoring a conference aimed at transgender and gender-nonconforming needs in the Central Valley and beyond.

The conference will be held from 8:30am – 4:30pm on Friday, May 4, followed by an evening reception from 5-7:30pm at CSU Stanislaus. The conference meets the qualifications for six hours of continuing credit for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, or LEPs.

“This is a critical moment for California’s public higher education system,” says CFA President Jennifer Eagan. “The state has the money it would take to restore much of the damage done to the CSU over the past decade, and everyone who knows how important that is needs to speak up now.”

In one of California’s best fiscal years ever, it’s time to fund the CSU. That is the message faculty and students are bringing to CSU campuses and the Capitol where the 2018-19 State Budget is being hammered out.

Hundreds of faculty and students around the state have RSVP’d to go to Sacramento on April 4. And a just-released animation explains why you should RSVP, too.

“This is definitely an ‘if not now, when?’ moment for the CSU,” says Kevin Wehr, CFA Secretary who is organizing for April 4 along with his CFA chapter, which is just a few miles from the State Capitol.

CFA, Students for Quality Education, and other CSU advocates scored a victory last week when the CSU Chancellor and Trustees delayed a vote on a proposed tuition hike. Now, faculty and students are shifting focus. Up next: Telling Gov. Jerry Brown to fund the CSU adequately.

CFA followed up this week on a January 4 open letter to the Chancellor by telling CSU Trustees at their Jan. 30 meeting it is time to step up meaningful pressure on the legislature and governor. It’s the one way the CSU can get the funds it really needs to live up to its mission.

NORTHRIDGE CFA CHAPTER VP HONORED AT TRUSTEES MEETING: CSU Northridge CFA Chapter Vice President Ivor Weiner, a professor of Special Education, was honored with a CSU Wang Family Excellence Award at the CSU Board of Trustees this week. In his remarks accepting the award, he said, “I am humbled and honored to accept this award, and I give thanks to CFA and my CSUN CFA chapter for always leading the way in giving a voice to the voiceless.” Northridge CFA Chapter President Nate Thomas also received the Wang Award, in 2015.

DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO WAS TURNED AWAY FROM THE CSU? They did the work in high school or community college. They got the grades. They were promised a seat in the CSU. But they were turned away. There are tens of thousands of qualified students who wanted to go to the CSU but were not admitted. CFA is interested in learning their stories. If you know such a student, please ask him or her to go tohttps://www.calfac.org/pod/were-you-turned-away-csu

At Governor Brown’s news conference on his 2018-19 state budget plan last week, a reporter asked him about the CFA PopUp Art Installation outside calling for more funding to admit 18,000 more qualified students to the CSU.

CFA sent the following Open Letter to CSU Chancellor Timothy White and CSU Trustees in advance of the release on January 10, 2018 of Governor Brown’s 2018-19 State Budget plan .CFA calls on CSU leaders to be stronger in fighting to keep the CSU—the People’s University—public and open to all qualified Californians.

The time has come for the state of California to end the long, slow process of dismantling public higher education. For decades, state disinvestment from the California State University has harmed students and it has harmed our state. We have too few Californians with college degrees.

The CSU is turning away eligible students who were promised a place in college in California’s Master Plan for Higher Education. More than 31,000 students were denied admission this year, with more students likely to be excluded in the future.

Now, this disinvestment is poised to continue, both in the Governor’s budget proposal to be released this month and in the budget request that the CSU Trustees submitted to the governor.